Man Dies in Flash Flooding

A man's body has been pulled from a twisted pile of downed trees and branches in Fountain Creek. Police believe rising waters on Sunday night swept 42-year-old Randy Umbaugh away as he was riding his all-terrain vehicle.

Umbaugh’s fiancée and her friends searched for him well into the night, then again Monday morning. Sadly, they found his body and called police around 8:20 a.m.

What was supposed to be a fun ride turned deadly. Friends say Umbaugh left around 6 o'clock Sunday night---riding in the dangerous creek area. "Normally this creek is 7 to 8 inches deep, perhaps---if that. Last night, it was clearly in places 8 or 9 feet deep," said Fountain Police Chief John Morse.

Umbaugh’s fiancée and friends spent most of the night trying to find him. His ATV was found upside-down---hundreds of feet upstream from where his body was located. "No one could see him because he was actually underwater. Once he got tangled up on some trees and some rocks, then when the water receded, some friends that were out looking for him, knew he was gone, found him," said Morse.

In Colorado Springs, the fire department’s Heavy Rescue team got about a dozen calls in just a few hours. They remind everyone to be careful by the creeks when rain falls anywhere in El Paso or Teller Counties. "Unbeknownst to this gentlemen, the water could be coming up 10 miles up stream. In another 10 minutes, it could be here," said Lt. Kevin Bird with the Heavy Rescue Unit.

Chief Morse agrees---saying people need to stay away from the waterways when there are storms in the area. "It seems people do get used to these creek beds being dry--- interesting trails for hiking, biking, motorized recreation. But they are always a dangerous place to be, because you never know what's happening upstream."

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